Pushing for perfection

Hockey isn't broken, but here's how to fix it anyway

For most of this season, fans have been carping about the lessened product the NHL trots out on the ice every night.

But even the most vocal critics keep coming out to the games or tuning in on television, so it's not as if hockey's "problems" have driven away its die-hard fan base.

Besides, even if you think the NHL stinks, what else are you going to watch? JAG?

I'm not the type -- nor of the proper demographic -- to sit around and mope about the good, old days of hockey, though I do believe the late '80s and early '90s offered some of the best hockey in history. A 30-team league inherently is going to have a more mediocre product than a 21-team league of just more than a decade ago. The game has changed significantly in the post-expansion era, but hockey is still the best game going.

But why not strive for perfection? I have a vision of the hockey utopia, where all fans get a product on a nightly basis that is well played, well officiated and entertaining. It's not too much to ask for, and the NHL is closer than you may think.

Other leagues have their own problems to deal with, too. The National Football League needs to change its unfair overtime procedure, the National Basketball Association needs to do something so that the Nuggets score more than 82 points per game, and Major League Baseball needs to call its strike zone as the rule is written and speed up play.

When you look at the problems facing the other three pro sports, the NHL's issues do seem significant, but a lot of that comes from being No. 4 out of the four major pro sports. With two bankrupt teams and tough collective bargaining agreement negotiations looming in the next 18 months, the NHL is at a crossroads. But the on-ice product remains strong and will remain that way through the off-ice difficulties.

Gary Bettman has done a terrific job of listening to fans' wishes and remaining open-minded to changes, so there's no reason to think he won't remain so in the future by allowing the game to continue to evolve.

The hurry-up faceoff rule has been a huge success. Games are wrapping up at a decent hour of the night, and their pace flows much better without the lengthy meet-and-greet sessions among teammates before every drop of the puck.

The obstruction crackdown has met with mixed results. Early in the season some people felt that too many penalties were being called and the game was turning into a special-teams war. Now, the complaints have turned to the increased diving that has resulted from players trying to get the refs to award a power play.

The vocal Brett Hull offered up his list of 10 suggestions in The Hockey News last month and made some excellent points. Though he was highly critical, he looked at things objectively and offered solutions rather than just pointing out the problems as he sees them. The bottom line is that Hull thinks hockey can be better, and so do I.

So why settle for good when we can aim for perfection?

As Oscar Wilde said: "It is through Art and through Art only that we can realize our perfection."

Completing a new collective bargaining agreement and securing the financial future of the Sabres and Senators are crucial major issues that need to be addressed, but here is my list of 10 quick-fixes the NHL should implement next season to bring us closer to puck perfection.

1. Get the sticks down

Players have lost respect for one another and it has manifested itself in an increase of stick fights. Nearly every time a puck is frozen in the crease, a jousting match ensues.

When the puck goes in the corner, players often lose control of their sticks while trying to push each other and kick the puck free.

Before the league mandated helmets in 1979, players were much more responsible with their twigs and head injuries were uncommon. Granted, the toothless smile was the hockey fashion of the '60s and '70s, but severe head injuries were a rarity.

Facial cuts, concussions, and eye injuries have risen despite more players wearing visors and mouth guards. This generation of players doesn't know what it was like to play without a lid, and their lack of respect for each others' face and head makes that clear.

Players should be penalized more severely for carelessness with their sticks, and the referees should start enforcing it by sending players to the penalty box for engaging in post-whistle poking.

2. Settle tie games with a shootout

The excitement generated by the shootout at the All-Star Game was incredible. When the public address announcer told people to stick around for a shootout, the atmosphere at the Office Depot Center became electric. And it didn't dissipate either, but rather remained at that fevered pitch for the 10 or so minutes it took to completed the shootout.

If you think back to the best hockey moments of the past 10 years, I immediately think of three of them which took place in shootouts: Peter Forsberg's postage-stamp goal to win the 1994 Olympics; Dominik Hasek's perfect performance in the 1998 Olympic semis against Canada; and the 2003 NHL All-Star Game.

Resorting to a skills competition among five players from each team isn't the perfect way to end a game, but ties are for Father's Day. I wouldn't mind seeing the length of overtime extended, but even with another five minutes added to the current five-minute regular-season overtime, the ice would be so chopped up that it would become dangerous to the players.

It's unrealistic to stop and resurface the ice between the third period and overtime during the regular season, so a 10-minute overtime probably would never gain support because of the horrible ice conditions it would create.

So a shootout gets my vote based on the fan interest it would generate. Such a drastic change to the structure of the game would certainly have to be tried in the American Hockey League first, but after a successful NHL debut at the All-Star Game it could build momentum and enter the discussion stage in the offseason.

3. Return to the old offsides rule

The refs need to pocket their whistles and let players come back and touch up on the blue line to clear offsides once again.

The current rule was put in place to force defensemen to handle the puck more by carrying it out of their own zone. The league wanted to increase the skill and speed of play by the blueliners, but it hasn't happened.

Bringing the old tag-up rule back would speed up the pace of the game and eliminate some of the one-dimensional, slow defensive players who currently just carry the puck back deeper into their own zone to play it safe until the forecheckers clear the blue line to get onsides again.

Reinstituting the old offsides rule would result in fewer whistles and bring back some of the flow of the game, too, by encouraging a strong forecheck and solid, puck-moving defensemen even more than the current system.

4. Get rid of touch-up icing

A race for the puck in an icing situation can be exciting, but the risk of injury outweighs the thrill of a forechecking forward beating the defenseman back for the puck to rub out an icing call.

Every time the puck is iced, it takes between two and four seconds for a defenseman to skate back to touch up the puck. If we approximate the number of icing calls per game at 20, that means between 40 and 80 seconds are lost each game to a mostly meaningless formality of a rearguard retreating to touch the puck.

By whistling icing immediately when the puck crosses the goal line, injuries would be prevented and more excitement would be added by putting the puck back in play for that additional 40-80 seconds that are currently spent watching a defenseman skate back to touch it up.

5. Move the nets back

It's pretty silly to have 13 feet behind the goal line when you can't score from there. That amounts to 26 feet on the ice where goals can't be scored from.

Prior to 1990 there was only 10 feet behind the net, and it's no coincidence that scoring has dropped since the league first made that change.

By going back to just 10 feet behind each net, the league would also add six feet to the neutral zone and give players more space to operate. With how big the players have become, the neutral zone has become a dangerous, crowded place.

Moving the nets back three feet to their original location would give skaters additional room to roam and open things up all over the ice.

6. Eliminate the red line

International hockey and the college game in the United States are played without the red line to highly lauded results.

The theory behind the elimination of the red line is to allow teams to go for the home-run pass and increase the number of fast-paced rushes through the neutral zone.

The Swedish Torpedo system may be despised in Canada after the opening game of the 2002 Olympics, but it offers an exciting, different idea about how offensive hockey should be played.

Too many teams play exactly the same style of hockey in the NHL right now, so eliminating the red line and allowing two-line passes would open up the game offensively and drastically increase scoring chances.

7. Crack down on diving

Greg Louganis may be the best diver ever, but many hockey fans think Forsberg could give him a run for his money.

Foppa, or Floppa as his detractors call him, is as strong on his skates as any player in the league, but he has mastered the art of falling like a house of cards at even the slightest touch. And with how good the Avs' power play has been over the past eight years, who can blame him for trying to get his team a man up?

But diving ruins the integrity of the game. Diving is for soccer players, anyway.

"Get rid of the obstruction and players won't dive," Ducks left wing Paul Kariya said last week. "That's the problem. As an offensive player, I'm going through the neutral zone and I've got a guy tugging me through the whole way. If I don't go down, I'm not going to get a call because they are not going to make the call. You don't want to see diving, but at the same time you have to call the obstruction or you're going to see it".

Diving penalties should automatically be punished by a double minor, and the offsetting hooking/diving call should be eliminated completely. Most of the time the dive is worse than the touch infractions that resulted in the player hitting the deck with his arms flailing. If the punishment for diving was increased on the ice, and fines were doled out off the ice to repeat offenders, it would vanish more quickly than it entered the game.

And then we could go back to appreciating the genius of Forsberg's play rather than his thespian skills.

8. Shorten the bench by two players

Rather than having teams carry 23 players on an active roster and dressing 20 per game, the numbers should be decreased by two in each instance.

Having all 30 teams carry two fewer players would eliminate 60 NHL jobs and increase the talent level required to make the show.

The top defensemen play nearly 30 minutes per game, while the top forwards are on the ice for around 20 minutes. By shortening the bench each team would be forced to play its skilled players more. While some depth would be eliminated, skilled depth would become more important.

The 12th and 13th forwards on the depth chart would be taken out of the game, but the seventh through 11th players would become even more crucial to a team's success. No longer would teams be able to rely on one dominant line, as coaches would need to roll all three lines and use their two extra forwards wisely in spot duty.

By forcing teams to play with 11 forwards, five defensemen and two goaltenders the game would be given back to the skill players. Goons would be almost entirely eliminated, though some tough guys who can also play (Georges Laraque comes to mind) might be able to stick around and be crucial bit players.

The NHLPA would surely never go for this change because it would cost 60 players their spots in the NHL, but it would be a quick fix to raise the talent level across the board in the league without contracting any teams. Coaching decisions and line matching would be magnified with fewer players to chose from, and decisions in the third period would be even more critical because players would be more fatigued due to the shorter bench.

9. Crack down on hits from behind

There is no more dangerous play in hockey than a check from behind. And the instances of these precarious plays along the boards seem to be on the rise.

But fault can't be place solely on the charging defensive player, as the offensive players who turn their back to the play while along the boards are as guilty as the defender who comes in to offer a check.

The same argument can be made here as for the obstruction-begat-diving situation. Players wised up to the fact that they could draw a penalty if they turned their back to the middle of the rink in the hopes of drawing a checking from behind penalty.

The defender still needs to be cautious and should be punished for intentionally and especially violent checks from behind, but often these hits are innocuous and initiated by the offensive player. Much like a basketball player who jumps into a defender looking for contact an a shooting foul, the goal of the offensive player in hockey in this instance is to draw a two-minute penalty.

10. Use the 200x100 Olympic-size ice

This final item on my wish list will never happen, mostly because it would require every building the league to reconfigure its ice surface and rip out premium seating in the lower bowl.

But it doesn't hurt to dream, does it?

The bigger ice would open up the game dramatically, as we see evidenced in international competitions. This allows more creativity in the neutral zone than we see in NHL games because of the added 15 feet of width. The number of rushes spikes sharply, as does the puck control of the offensive team due to more space to skate and create.

It is much more difficult to run a neutral-zone trap because of the added space on the big international-sized rink. Then again, the Germans found their own variation of a trap by lining four players up across the blueline and nearly lulling their opponents to sleep during the 2002 Olympics.

A larger sheet of ice would also place a premium on physical fitness and would hinder plodding veterans who hang on too long and are thereby the most frequent offenders of nasty clutch-and-grab hockey.

Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for SI.com.

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